Clip



June 23, 1959 EUBANKS 2,891,657

CLIP

Filed Jan. 8, 1957 INVENTM FURNEYMELBANKS BY I '1 a. I! I I "woman's United States Patent CLIP Furney M. Eubanks, Trenton, N.C., assignor to Long Manufacturing Company, Inc., Tarboro, N.C.

Application January 8, 1957, Serial No. 633,075

5 Claims. (Cl. 198179) The present invention relates to article handling and more particularly to a clip for use with a conveyor for gripping an article to be transferred from one position to another.

Heretofore various types of conveyors and clips have been used for moving articles from one position to another and in the patent to Long, No. 2,704,158, a tobacco harvester is shown in which clips are pivotally mounted on a chain being maintained in an operative upright position by a pendulum action. Rollers were provided on the clip for engagement with tobacco leaves and a tension spring cooperating therewith urged the rollers together whereby tobacco leaves were gripped between the rollers and the tension spring.

Although the Long clip has been satisfactory because it securely retained the tobacco leaves and permitted ready removal, some scraping and damaging of the leaves occurred in the event that the tobacco leaves were removed by a downward pull rather than being moved outwardly.

An object of the present invention is to provide a clip in which articles may be securely gripped and from which articles may be readily removed.

Another object is to provide a clip for use with a conveyor which is simple, providing for ready insertion of articles and ready removal without requiring an operator to have his hand move with the conveyor during the removal of the article.

Other and further objects will be apparent as the description proceeds and upon reference to the accompanying drawing wherein:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the clip of the present invention with a dotted line position showing a limit of movement of the parts thereof;

Fig. 2, a side elevation of the clip as viewed from the left;

Fig. 3, a transverse section taken on line 33 of Fig.1 showing the hinged construction and the spring; and

Fig. 4, a perspective showing the clip in position on a vertical section of a conveyor.

Briefly, the present invention includes a pendulum element having a pivot at its upper end and a first arm extending laterally from the lower end of the pendulum element with a roller at the outer end of said first arm. A second arm is pivotally mounted to the pendulum element and diverges from said first arm having a pair of hinge knuckles thereon, a hinge leaf having two or more knuckles is pivotally connected by a pin to the knuckles of said second arm and has an extension which projects outwardly and converges toward the outer end of said first arm with a roller on the outer end of said extension. A stud projects upwardly from the first arm closely adjacent the roller and a tension spring is secured to the upper portion of said stud and is connected to the extension of said hinge leaf closely adjacent the roller on the extension for urging the rollers together and urging said hinge leaf to a position so that the rollers provide a narrow throat, the spring and the rollers providing a 2,891,657 Patented June 23, 1959 "ice generally triangular article receiving space for gripping an article such as tobacco leaves therebetween. The tobacco leaves may be inserted by lateral movement of the leaves between the rollers and toward the spring and the tobacco leaves may be removed by reversal of this movement or by a downward pull on tobacco leaves which causes the hinge leaf to pivot about the hinge pin and the roller at the outer end of the extension moves backwardly therewith thereby enlarging the triangular space to permit ready removal of the tobacco leaves.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, a pendulum element 10 isprovided with a pivot pin 11 fixed to the upper end thereof by means of a head 12 and a collar 13, the pin 11 being adapted to be received in openings 14 in a conveyor chain. The pin 11 is retained on the selected link by means of a horseshoe type spring clip of well-known variety which would be received in a groove 15, the groove 15 being spaced from the collar 13 by a distance approximating the spacing between the outer surfaces of the links of the conveyor chain whereby the pendulum may be rotatably mounted in any one of the pairs of holes 14 in the links.

A curved arm fixed to the pendulum element 10 carries a pair of disk rollers 17, 17 at its outer end which are rotatably mounted on a rivet 18 passing through the arm. A second arm 19 is pivotally connected by a rivet 20 to the pendulum element 10 and arm 16, said second arm 19 having a pair of hinge knuckles 21, 21 formed thereon. A hinge leaf 22 having a plurality of knuckles 23 is pivotally connected by means of the conventional hinge pin 24 to the knuckles 21 of the arm 19. An extension 25 of the hinge leaf carries a pair of rollers 26, 26 which are rotatably mounted on a rivet 27 passing through the outer end of the extension 25, the rollers 26, 26 and rollers 17, 17 being adapted for relatively close positioning to form a throat therebetween, the size of the throat or spacing between the disks when in closed position being limited by a stop 28 on the arm 16 which engages the arm 19. The rollers 17, 17 and 26, 26 are urged together and maintained in the position shown in full line in the drawing by means of a tension spring 29 which has one end secured to the upper end of a stud 30 projecting upwardly from an intermediate portion of the arm 16, the other end of the tension spring being connected to the hinge leaf 22 by a hook of the spring passing through an aperture in the hinge leaf, whereby the parts are maintained together and the hinge leaf is maintained in a horizontal position.

From the above description the operation of the clip is believed to be obvious, articles such as tobacco leaves are inserted between the rollers 17, 17 and 26, 26 by a lateral movement toward the spring 29 and the conveyor chain carries the articles to their destination where an operator can grip the suspended portion of the articles and merely let the chain pull away from the articles thereby the hinge leaf 22 and its extension and rollers 26, 26 will pivot to a position transverse to the plane of the arm 16 and rollers 17, 17 until the articles are removed. The dotted line position shown in Fig. 1 is an exaggerated open position, but normally the rollers are not separated to that extent since the articles are removed from the clip when the rollers are separated a much less amount. It will be evident that articles can be readily inserted and removed with a minimum of effort with resulting economy on the amount of labor required thereby reducing the costs of production whether used on a tobacco harvester or any other type of conveyor equipment and the clip may be useful in many other applications including a stationary mounting for supporting articles such as brooms or the like.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof and therefore the invention is not limited by that which is illustrated in the drawing and described in the specification, but only as indicated in the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A clip for mounting 'on a conveyor for supporting articles in suspended condition, said clip comprising a pendulum element, a pivot at the upper end of said pendulum element, an arm fixed to the lower end of said pendulum element and projecting outwardly and away from said pivot, a second arm pivoted to said pendulum said second arm including a hinge means having at least two knuckles, a cooperating hinge leaf pivotally mounted on said second arm, the axis between said arm and said hinge leaf generally converging with the first arm toward the pivot, a first roller formed of ap'air of disks on said first arm and a second roller formed of a pair of disks on said hinge leaf and adapted to cooperate to provide a throat between said rollers, a stud projecting upwardly from said first arm, a spring extending from an upper portion of said stud toward and engaging the hinge leaf connected to said second arm whereby the rollers are normally maintained in closely spaced relation and the rollers with said spring providing a generally triangular tobacco leaf receiving space, the tobacco leaves being adapted to be inserted in the space by movement of the leaves between the rollers spreading the rollers apart while in a single plane and providing for removal of the tobacco leaves by a downward pull whereby the roller and the hinge leaf pivots on the axis of said hinge providing for enlargement of the space for the removal of the tobacco leaves.

2. A clip adapted to maintain upright position and to receive elongated articles for suspension, said clip comprising a pivot, a pendulum element extending downward- 1y from said pivot, an armprojecting laterally from said pendulum, a second arm pivoted relative to said pendulum and first arm, said second arm having hinge knuckle means thereon, a hinge leaf pivotally connected to the knuckle means on said second arm and having a lateral extension converging towards the first arm, rollers on the outer end of said first arm and rollers on the outer end of said hinge leaf extension, a spring extending between said first arm and said extension, and located generally tangent to said rollers whereby articles may be gripped between said spring and said rollers and articles may be inserted by lateral movement inwardly between said rollers and removed either by lateral movement outwardly between said rollers or by a downward movement in the direction of said pendulum element.

3. A clip for mounting on a chain comprising a pivot pin, the vertical arm of an L-shaped bracket extending from one end of the pivot pin and the horizontal arm having a roller at its outer end, a lever pivoted to the L-shaped bracket adjacent the angle thereof, a hinge leaf pivotally mounted on said lever along an axis diverging from the horizontal arm of the L-shap'ed bracket, a roller carried by the free end of the hinge leaf, means to limit the movement of said lever toward the horizontal arm of said L -shaped bracket whereby the rollers cannot normally touch, and spring means extending between the horizon tal arm of said L -shaped bracket and the hinge leaf whereby the rollers are normally maintained in operative proximity with the spring generally tangent to said rollers whereby tobacco leaves may be retained between said rolle'rs and said spring and the tobacco leaves may be removed from said clip by 'a downward movement which causes said second roller to move bodily about the axis of said hinge whereby the tobacco leaves may be readily removed by a downward pull.

4. A clip providing for ready insertion and removal of articles comprising mounting means, a first arm projecting outwardly from said mounting means, a second arm pivotally mounted with respect to said mounting means and said first arm, an extension hingedly connected to one of said arms for pivoted movement on an axis extending along said one of said arms, the outer end of said hinged extension and the outer end of the other of said arms 'being provided with tapering throat portions to provide for guidance of an article into the clip, a tension spring extending between and connected to said extension and said other of said arms urging said hinged extension and said other of said arms together whereby articles may be re tained between the outer end of said other of said arms, said hinged extension and said spring so that the article may be readily removable therefrom.

5. A clip providing for ready insertion and removal of articles comprising mounting means, a first arm projecting outwardly from saidmounting means, a second arm pivotally mounted with respect to said mounting means am! said first arm on a first axis providing for movement of said second arm toward and away from said Ffirst arm, an extension hingedly connected to one of said arms for pivotal movement about a second axis transverse to said first axis, the outer end of said hinged extension and the outer end of the other of said arms being provided 'w'ifl: an outwardly and inwardly flaring throat to provide for guidance of an article into the clip, a tension spring adjacent the inner end of said throat and connected to said hinged extension and to said other of said arms urging said hinged extension and said other of said arms together whereby articles may be retained between the outer end of said other of said arms, said hinged extension, and said tension spring, and such articles may be readily removed therefrom by a lateral movement through said throat or by a movement transverse thereto.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

